Christmas Party–Easy, Fun, and Cheap!

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Cheri

My family is a family of Christmas Party Hostesses.  We love getting together for the holidays with family and friends.  So you’ll likely see quite a few ideas of how to have great Christmas parties.  The reality of it all is that if you’re going to have a Christmas party, you need to send out the invitations…today.  Everyone’s schedules get so packed the closer you get to Christmas, so having your holiday parties during the first two weeks of December is the best way to get the most guests available to come.

Still, for those of us on a budget, we can’t host a full dinner for everyone we’d want to celebrate with.  Plus, with all the other events and pressures that come with the holidays, do we really want to host a stressful party?  Maybe it would just  be a better idea to pass this year as the host and just be a guest at someone else’s party. 

Not so!  This year, you can have an easy, fun AND inexpensive Christmas party that isn’t going to take all month to plan.  In fact, you could have the invitations sent out tonight.  Here are a few tips:

INVITATIONS: Use evite.com to send out your invitations (see Janae’s recent post about the Great Christmas Exchange).  They have a TON of beautiful electronic invitation templates to choose from that you can personalize for your specific party.  You can add guests’ emails (as many as you want) and send them messages, reminders, and updates as often as you need to.  Plus, they have a great new feature that allows you to list what guests can bring to the party.  As they choose what they’d like to bring, the options disappear until everything has been chosen.  It is a great way to stay organized.  Plus, it’s FREE!

FOOD: Ask your guests to bring a dessert or appetizer to share.  All you will be in charge of is the location, drinks, and paper goods.  Since we don’t drink alcohol, our drinks are typically a delicious apple cider and a Christmas punch, plus water for those who don’t want the other.  So our contribution usually costs about $10-$15.  I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll have enough food brought by everyone else to keep everyone satisfied.  We’ve done it with just desserts and then with both desserts and appetizers and everyone agreed: do both.

GUESTS: You can usually assume that 30% of your guests will not be able to come.  So invite as many as you can accomodate plus some.  We usually do it adults only and in couples, so we usually invite 30-45 couples. 

GAMES: We have used a couple different Christmas Games with prizes.  The first, we print pictures of scenes from various Christmas movies and hang them all over the walls and play “Who’s Who?” 

How you play is everyone is given a sheet with blank spaces corresponding to each picture.  The goal is for them to identify a) all actors shown in the picture, b) all character names shown in the picture, and c) the name of the movie.  They get points for as many components as they get correct.  For example, a picture from The Santa Clause would require me to identify Tim Allen, Scott Campbell/Santa Claus, and “The Santa Clause”.  Get it?  The prize could be a plate of cookies, or a Christmas gift, or a small gift card, or whatever you want.

The second game is the traditional “Guess How Many Candies are the in Jar” game.  It is simple and easy to do and easy for people to guess while mingling.  The prize is the jar of candies.

The last game is “Name That Tune…Using the First Letters of the Words in the First Line of the Song”.  Whew.  Long title.  Click here to print the game and here for the answers. 

You could do just these things, or you could expand your party to include caroling (door to door or in your home) or even Janae’s Great Christmas Exchange.  We’ve done both and it’s a success any way you do it.  Just make sure you have food, candles burning, music playing, games to play, and people to enjoy the evening with.  You can’t go wrong.

So what are you waiting for?  Get your invitations emailed out and start counting down the days until your party.

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Posted in Activities, All Writers, Budgeting, Cheri, Christmas, Christmas Organization, Christmas Parties, Family, For You, Fun, Holidays, Me Time, The Moms | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

TV-Free Activities for Kids

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Kerri

I have two boys.  Wonderful and sweet as they may be, they both love to be active and Go-Go-Go!  The addition of the baby girl didn’t slow things down at all.  Now that she’s walking, I feel like a Three-Ring Circus more than a Picture Perfect Family.  But, in attempts to keep up with their ever growing energy and curiosity, I’ve become a mom of adventures, redefining the title of Stay at Home Mom, because we are rarely staying at home.

But, what about the days we do stay home?  What do we do then?  Here are some of my favorite TV-Free activities we have on hand.

1.  Rainbow Rice Bucket

A fun sensory experience with endless possibilities.  I dump a whole bunch of colored rice in our sensory table, a large bowl, or a shallow Rubbermaid storage bin and give the kids all kinds of tools to use.  I add things for them to find – dinosaurs, toy cars, letters, numbers, etc.  I give them cups and funnels to pour and measure.  And on other occasions, I give them paper and glue for art projects.  Click here to create your own colored rice.

2.  Indoor Forts and Obstacle Courses

On wet or cold days when you can’t go outside and the kids have pent-up energy, building a fort and obstacle course is always engaging!  Using furniture, blankets, sheets, and towels, together you can make great hiding places to read and play.  Obstacle Courses help kids develop physical coordination, control, and balance.  Some ideas for an indoor obstacle course are:

  • Crawling through the legs of the dining room chairs
  • Under a coffee table (watch those heads!)
  • Tie a cord between two chairs to slide under on their tummies
  • Make a tunnel out of chairs, cushions, and a rug
  • Play leap frog, stepping from towel to towel (only on carpet so they don’t slip)
  • Tie some balloons under a table and crawl through without moving any
  • Roll up some towels and make a long ‘balance beam’.

Depending on the age of your child, you can time them to see what their shortest time can be.  Graph the results together.  Besides having fun and being active, they will have math experience, too.

3.  Fun in a Box

Another idea to add to the forts is making a box tunnel.  Go to a local produce or housewares store (Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) and collect boxes of all sizes.  Bring them home and let the kids go wild setting up tunnels, cubbies, and towers.  Decorate it with markers and stickers.  Cut out holes for windows and doors.

4.  Balloon Sailing

Beware:  This activity has your whole family laughing in minutes!  Grab a few deflated balloons and an electric air pump.  Using the pump, blow the balloons up and just let them sail without tying them in a knot.  Your kids will love to run and catch them and bring them back to you for more!  Of course, the pump just makes this easier and faster.  You can have just as much fun blowing them up on your own!

5.  Pudding Play

 

It’s messy; that’s true.  But it’s worth it.  Together we make a batch of instant pudding, then spread it on the table to do finger painting.  We draw pictures of our favorite things, play I spy and draw things in the room to guess what it is, draw our letters and numbers for practice, etc.  For the children who don’t want to get their hands dirty: use a chopstick or Popsicle stick.  For the Moms that want it cleaner: use cookie sheets instead of the table.  And since no activity for my boys seem complete WITHOUT their toy cars, we bring those out, too, for them to drive in and make tracks.  Then they LOVE the carwash they do in the sink while I clean off the table.

Going on adventures is fun, but something magical happens with the kids when together we experiment with materials we have around the house.  The most important thing is that you are spending amazing quality time with your children and engaging in their world.

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Posted in Activities, Adventures, All Writers, Children, Crafts, Family, Fun, Games, Kerri, Learning, Surviving Winter, The Moms | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Colored Rice

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Kerri

Colored Rice is a fun sensory resource to have on hand.  While kids play in it, they are gaining skills in math, science, art, and fine motor concepts.

How to make Colored Rice:

  1. Help your child measure 1 cup of rice and pour it into a Ziploc Bag.
  2. Carefully add 5-10 drops of food coloring to the bag and 1 tsp vinegar to set the color.
  3. Close the bag tightly, and help your child mix the rice by shaking the bag and rolling it around in his hands.
  4. When the rice is fully colored, spread the rice out flat onto a baking sheet.
  5. Bake at 200 degrees for 45 minutes to dry the rice.  No need to just sit and wait until it’s done drying; Make another color with another cup of rice in the meantime.  Then when all your colors are done, mix them together for a fun mixture of Rainbow Rice.

Use the rice for sensory experiences by putting it in a Sensory Table, large bowl, or shallow Rubbermaid container.  Hide small treasures or toys in the rice for them to find.  Help them scoop, pour, and measure using kitchen tools and funnels.  Using markers, paper, and glue, create mosaic art and decorations. Or layer the rice in a glass jar, as you would using colored sand.

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Posted in Activities, All Writers, Children, Crafts, Family, Fun, Games, Kerri, Learning, Surviving Winter, The Moms | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Clearplay and “The Blind Side”

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Sunny

I wanted to recommend a movie for the Thanksgiving season, but before I do that, I have to tell you about Clearplay. Clearplay is a DVD player and a filter subscription service that lets you watch regular DVDs censored according to your preferences. Originally, I was skeptical about using such a service since I figured if a movie needed to be censored, it probably didn’t belong in our home.  But I have found that I would have little to watch at all if I ruled out any movie that had a speck of profanity. And that is what I’ve enjoyed with Clearplay–movies without flinching at expletives, or keeping my hand on the remote in case there is an inappropriate scene (and of course, it would be a little late by the time I did anything about it).

I tend to be a bit more conservative than most when it comes to what movies I consider appropriate for my family, so I appreciate that Clearplay allows you to choose the setting (high, low, medium) for each category being filtered (profanity, sexuality, substance abuse, violence, etc.) and it tells you what that means.  You can adjust the setting at any time, so you could, for example, preview a movie and then decide to change the setting when you have your children watch it.  Or you could change the setting in the middle of the movie.

I am aware that I still need to remind myself and my teenagers that even though we may have watched a movie at home, that doesn’t mean that the same movie is acceptable to watch at a friend’s house. (Though this actually hasn’t been much of an issue at all–life is apparently too busy to hang out with friends watching movies anyway.) And we need to qualify our recommendations, since we don’t want anyone to watch something offensive just because we said it was a great movie, forgetting that we watched it edited.

Which is why I had to tell you about Clearplay before I recommended a movie we watched with our teenagers recently.  You have probably already heard about it: The Blind Side.  I found this movie, based on a true story, particularly appropriate for the Thanksgiving season as it not only includes Thanksgiving in the story, but it is a good reminder of some of the blessings we enjoy–family, education, shelter, food, friends.And I am also thankful that as I watched it with my boys, we could learn to sympathize with some of the harder elements of this world without bringing violence or profanity into our home.

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The Great Christmas Exchange

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Janae

Each year as the Christmas season approaches, I have mixed feelings. On one side, I absolutely love Christmas. I love giving gifts. I love helping my kids find and make gifts for each other. I also love hosting a Christmas Party each year. I love having people over and enjoying my favorite Christmas treats.

On the other hand, knowing full well that my kids will be getting plenty of toys for Christmas, I’ve also found myself thinking “They already have enough…Do I really want to add more to their piles of toys?”

Not only that, but as the economy has gotten worse and I and many others have found themselves with thinning pockets, Christmas can sometimes bring stress.

So, last year, I decided to try something. You may have heard about it before. I first heard about it on an Oprah show years ago. It’s the Great Christmas Exchange.

Here’s how it worked:

First, using Evite, I sent out an invitation to everyone I knew. The invite said the following:

‘Tis the Season of gift giving, fun, friends, family, and unfortunately, for some, the endless question of “what should I get him/her”? If you’re like me, ’tis also the season of thinking “I already have too much stuff. Should I really add any more to this chaos?” If you’ve asked yourself either of those questions this year, then come to the gift exchange party this year.

Here’s how it works. Bring whatever toys, household items, clothing, jewelry, etc. that are in good repair that you no longer want or need. Bring items for any age or gender. You’ll then have a chance to “shop” for gifts you may want to give to people in your family from the items others bring. It’s a great way to recycle, a fun way to shop for Christmas and a free way to beat the recession!

Please note, although you’ll need to bring something to be eligible to shop, we are also going to have a great Christmas party with treats, music and friendship, so please join us either way!

For now, clean out those closets, sort through those toy chests, and start collecting things you’d like to pass on. And, don’t forget to save the date and get a sitter for the little ones. Due to all the fun surprises and gifts that will be throughout the house, please just bring kids 2 and under.

The RSVPs started rolling in. This was a hot idea! I had people asking to just donate things and others excited to shop for free as well as get rid of their used things.

One week before the event, I sent a follow up to the original invite that read:

Hello Everyone! Only 7 more days until our Christmas Gift Exchange! So clean out those closets, sort through those toy shelves, clear out the storage and get ready for this Wednesday (or day/night of the party)!  Here are just a few last minute details to consider:

1. Due to the many Christmas Gifts and Surprises that will be throughout the house, please only bring children 2 and under.

2. Don’t forget you can bring gifts for any age or gender. Feel free to bring music, movies, games, toys, clothing, household items, craft projects…whatever you don’t want that’s in good condition and may be a good gift for someone else.

3. Here’s how the day will go: Please bring all the items you want to give away at _____ (the party START time). We’ll chat, munch, and browse until _______(45 minutes after the party START time). At that time, we’ll all pick a number and will start picking gifts in that order. We’ll continue until we’re done! We won’t be able to add anything to the gift tables after we start, so please bring your gifts promptly at ______ (Party Start time). If you know you’re going to be late, please drop off your things earlier in the day or the night before.

4. Don’t forget: To “shop”, you need to bring something. But, even if you’d rather not shop, we’d love to have you for the fun!

5. Gifts are only half the fun of Christmas. The holidays wouldn’t be the same without the holiday food. Please bring your favorite Christmas Treat or Hors’ Doeuvre to share!

6. I’ve arranged to take all of the left over goods to an inner city shelter. So, whether your items get picked or not, they’ll all make someone’s Christmas happier.

The Christmas Exchange was a hit. As people came to the door I directed them briefly as to where to put their items (toys/kids items in the Living Room, household items in the dining rooms, books and movies in the den, clothing in the family room, etc). I asked them to set up their things and then start browsing for what they’d like to pick to take home.

Thirty minutes after the party started, I counted up the number of guests and put that many papers in a bowl. I had 18 guests, I think, so I had papers numbered 1-18. Each guest picked a number. Forty-five minutes after the party start time, we started with #1. Since she had already browsed, she ran right to what she wanted and came back to my family room and called for #2. She stood and ran to what she had already browsed for then called for #3 and so forth. When we got to #18, we started over and continued the process.

If at any time someone was done shopping, they would just say “pass” and we’d move on to the next person. It went quickly, but while people waited their turn, they stayed in the family room where we all mingled, talked, laughed and enjoyed all the treats people had brought.

In the end, it was a great success. It was a lot of fun and in less than 2 hours, people had come, gotten rid of things they no longer needed, had a great time with friends, and then left with boxes of “free” Christmas gifts.  It was such a hit, in fact, that by early October of this year, I was already getting requests to host it again.  As for me, I was able to fill every single one of my kids’ Christmas wishes while still emptying half of my toy room. It was everything I had hoped for.

Best of luck with your Christmas exchange. I post it now because I find that early November is the best time to host such a party…before people start shopping for Christmas and before everyone’s calendars get filled up.

Feel free to copy and paste my invites, filling in your own dates, times and details. And, have a very Merry Recyclable Christmas!

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Posted in Activities, All Writers, Budgeting, Children, Christmas, Christmas Organization, Christmas Parties, Family, For You, Fun, Gift Ideas, Goals, Holidays, Janae, Organization, The Moms | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Book of Thanks

Posted on November 4, 2010 by Heidi

Many books are a good one-time read.  Some are good enough to actually buy and keep in your library.  And then there are those books that are so delicious to the senses that they find a place on the coffee table in the front room of your house.

This is one of those books.

Although the illustrations by Greg Shed are beautiful to the eyes, the prose by Douglas Wood (Old Turtle, A Quiet Place), especially impresses the inner sense of humble gratitude for the blessings we have in our lives.

If I could, I would buy this book for every one of my friends, family members, even acquaintances.  When I first read it, it filled my heart with gratitude for all the many blessings I have received in my life, from a normally functioning body to the people that surround me each day.  And it did so the second read, and the third.

Sometimes we focus on the bounty of food that typically covers the table on Thanksgiving day.  This Thanksgiving, give yourself and your family the gift of this book as a remembrance of the bounty of blessings you are grateful for.

And remember to place it on your coffee table.  You’ll be grateful you did.

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What About Potty Training?

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Cheri

Potty training.  Ugh.  Do you feel the same way?  Let me tell you my story.  My firstborn is a dream.  So easy.  So accomodating.  So mature.  I was worried about potty training, but took the advice of everyone I met and didn’t push it at all.  We decided to let her choose when to do it.  I tried to encourage her to try, but each time was met with so much resistance that it wasn’t even worth it.  So, you can imagine my shock when she walked down the stairs, four months before her 3rd birthday, and said, “Mommy, I don’t want to wear diapers anymore.”  Hmm…yet you’ve never ONCE gone in the potty!  Rrriiight. 

Thankfully, Janae was in town for Thanksgiving and she jumped on this opportunity.  Apparently when people said “wait until she’s ready” this is what they meant.  We took Laney out shopping for underwear that afternoon and tried to get her to sit on the potty every 20 minutes until she went.  Nothing.  And each time was a fight.  She’d arch her back and scream.  So she held it all day and all night.  She went to bed with her underwear on and kept it dry. 

The next day, we went swimming (yes, we lived in Phoenix and it was “warm enough” to go swimming outdoors).  Much to my surprise, Laney said, “Mom!  I need to go potty!”  And she did!  #1 AND #2!  WOW!  That was an exciting day.  And that was the end of potty training her.  In the last 2 years since then, she has had about 3 accidents total.  I think two of those were wetting the bed and one was just not making it to the potty in time.

Now, fast forward a year when my second born is approaching her 2nd birthday.  Noelle is strong spirited, passionate, and can be as stubborn as a mule most of the time.  If she doesn’t want to, she’s not going to.  If she does want to, there’s no stopping her.  I would stay up at night dreading the day I’d have to potty train her.  So I decided to follow the wise advice again and just wait until she was ready.  I didn’t expect that to be until she was at LEAST four. 

Nope.  Not so.  Just after her second birthday, she decided it was time to use the potty.  She’d rip off her diaper every time after she filled it.  I never knew when I’d have a messy bum running thru the house…or where she left that diaper.  She’d leave puddles on the carpet or the floors for me to discover later, or would take off her diaper, run to a corner, and poop there.  Seriously?  Do we HAVE to potty train?  I think she could wear diapers all her life, don’t you?

That’s when we decided it was time to teach her to go on the toilet.  But training a bull-headed two year old to do what you want her to do is like training an elephant to do flips.  It’s just not worth the effort!  Still, I couldn’t have my entire house used as a port-a-potty, so we had to start.  I tried everything to get her to produce on the toilet, but little worked.  We put blue food coloring in the toilet water to see if she could make it turn green (doesn’t really work anyway) but that wasn’t inticing enough.  Then we moved to M&Ms and fruit snacks as bait.  But she wasn’t going so all we’d end up with was fits.  Still, it worked the best because one day, she actually went.  #1, but still, she went.  There was great rejoicing in our home that day.

But then we met a new challenge.  She would go a teeny-tiny bit, get off, and then 5 minutes later, have to go again.  This wouldn’t be a big deal if she could get herself on the potty, pull down her own pants, and pull them back up again, let alone flush and wash her hands.  So for the next many days, I spent most of my time in the bathroom.  With two other kids to take care of, including a 5 month old, that wasn’t condusive to my life.  Plus, she’d wet her pants half the time, so my laundry was piling up fast.  I decided to try the bare-bum method and let her run around in a dress all day with nothing on her rear.  It worked like a charm!  As long as she had nothing on, she never had an accident and was pretty consistent at getting to the potty.

Then we met ANOTHER challenge.  Noelle refused to go #2.  She would hold it for days until her belly swelled up, she would cry in pain, and we had to put a diaper on just to get her to go.  We had to give her enemas and laxatives to help with the constipation.  Once she got regular again, we’d start letting her use underwear again.  After about 4 days of success with #1, she would get backed up (because in those 4 days, she wasn’t pooping), so we’d start the process all over again.  This was the hardest experience I had had in parenting up to that point.  I got nothing done, had constant cleanup to do, and felt like I lived in the bathroom.  Plus, I was getting really angry with her.  I hated potty training and I was so frustrated that it was taking so long!

After about 6 weeks of this process, we moved out of state.  For the couple weeks before and couple weeks after, I put her in diapers and gave up on the whole thing.  What a relief.  But soon, she was begging to go potty again.  How do you squash the desires of a two-year-old to do exactly what you really DO want her to do?  So, we got out the underwear and put away the diapers…again.  This time, she had grown leaps and bounds.  She could get on and off the potty herself, pull up and down her own pants, flush the potty, wash her own hands…brilliant.  And she was consistent at getting to the potty without wetting her pants first.  Well, she’d go a teeny tiny bit in her pants, but then she’d get the rest out in the toilet.  Success. 

Still, though, we had a problem with #2.  And wetting the bed.  I am a believer in no training pants and not switching between diapers and underwear every day/night, so I kept her in underwear at night as long as she was in underwear during the day.  And she wet the bed a lot.  We tried limiting water in the evenings, but it didn’t seem to matter.  That’s when I had a stupendous idea.  I bought a training potty from Goodwill and put it in her bedroom.  That way, during naps and bedtime, if she ever had to go, she could immediately.  And guess what?!  It solved the problem completely.  We’re now to the point that she’ll wet the bed maybe once a month.  But usually not. 

And Kerri had a stupendous idea that really helped Noelle get thru the difficulty of going #2 on the toilet.  One day, as Noelle was pushing on the potty, and I could tell it just wasn’t going to get anywhere, Kerri suggested I pop Noelle in the tub and let her get her mind off the potty as well as relax her body enough to go.  So I did, and guess what?!  It worked!  Within 5 minutes, she asked to go potty and actually pooped.  It was amazing!  No, that wasn’t the end of our troubles, but it did fix the constipation cycle and she took only about another week before she was completely done. 

From start to finish took about 6 months, with a 6 week hiatus in between when we were moving, plus about 6 breaks as we had to get her regular before continuing.  It was a dreaded process, but I learned a lot along the way.  In my darkest moments, where I would get angry with her because of the whole thing, I realized that none of that works nor is it worth it.  The best advice is still to wait until your child is ready, but then after that, just relax and take it a day at a time.  There’s no magic trick to potty training except patience and love. 

Still, I am already dreading when Emery will go thru this.  You know that whole amnesia thing after pregnancy and labor that makes moms want to have another baby?  Yeah, there is NEVER enough time that passes between potty trainings that makes you actually WANT to do it again.  But there is also nothing so wonderful as having a potty trained child.  It is SO worth it!

**For those of you struggling to potty train an older child, just wait.  Kerri will be posting on her experiences in that soon!**

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Posted in All Writers, Challenges, Cheri, Children, Family, For You, Goals, Infants and Toddlers, The Moms | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

What Flavor Are You?

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Kerri

What’s your favorite kind of ice cream? Apparently, it says something about you:

Double Chocolate: You tend to be lively, creative and dramatic. Always the life of the party, you charm everyone you meet with your enthusiasm and sense of style. You enjoy being in the spotlight and prefer to be in the company of friends rather than left alone to reflect on life. You prefer passion and excitement in your romantic relationships, and require a lot of attention from your mate.

Vanilla: There is nothing plain about Vanilla. In fact, if you love Vanilla, you are actually a colorful, dramatic ris taker who relies more on intuition than logic. Emotionally expressive and idealistic, you ten to set high goals for yourself, and push yourself to meet and exceed them. On the romantic front, you tend to rely on secure romantic relationship that fulfill your emotional needs while working toward future objectives.

Butter Pecan: You might be characterized as the perfect worker. You are devoted, conscientious, respectful and fiscally conservative. You hold high standards for right and wrong and show integrity in all of your actions. This includes an extreme sensitivity for others’ feelings. You aren’t one to wear your heart on your sleeve; it takes a little encouragement from close friends and family to share your deepest thoughts.

Strawberry: A love for strawberry reveals a thoughtful, logical person who carefully weighs each option before making decisions. More a follower than a leader, you are content and effective working behind the scenes and out of the limelight. In relationships, you are often characterized as shy and reserved. Although you don’t fall head-over-heels in love at first sight, once you commit to a relationship, you are loyal and supportive.

Rocky Road: You tend to be a balanced mixture of charm and practicality. While you are outgoing and engaging in social situations, in the business world you tend to be more aggressive and goal-oriented. You enjoy being catered to, and appreciate the finer things in life. You are very sensitive to minor slights and respond best to encouragement rather than criticism.

Chocolate Chip: You are competitive and accomplished; no victory is sweet without a little hard work. Although you are competent and ambitious in love and work, you are generous with your time and money, never taking your blessings for granted. Your captivating personality makes you a shining star in social situations.

Mint Chocolate Chip: You tend to be ambitious and confident…yet a little skeptical about life. You are a realist who prepares for the future, needing a solid plan to feel secure. While your stubbornness is a business asset, it can add a challenging element to your relationships. Nonetheless, your loyalty, honesty, and dependability create lasting friendships and close family ties.

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Minute to Win It–Looks Who’s On TV!

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Sunny

Have you seen “Minute to Win It” on TV?  I actually haven’t (yet), as I hardly catch anything on TV, but that didn’t stop our family from having a blast with it at a recent family reunion.  Our fabulous organizer took all sorts of these challenges, divided our extended family up in teams that mixed ages and generations, and we battled it out with each other, finding many a hidden talent.  The challenges require just common household items.

I filmed a bunch of them and posted them on Youtube, and quite soon after, I received a message on my Youtube account from NBC asking me if they could use the footage on national TV!  Apparently, they are looking for these kinds of clips all the time, so if you’d like to get your family on national TV, put on your own Minute to Win It activity and post it on Youtube!

Some details: you need the permission of everyone in the videos and the owner of the property it is filmed on.  You have to read a lot of legalese.  They will let you know when your clip airs, and you get a free T-shirt!

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Ever heard of the ‘Candy Witch’?

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Heidi


It may be safe to assume that most parents dread the aftermath of Halloween: bags full of sugary candies devoured by small mouths smeared with chocolate, wrappers strewn around the floor,


My youngest joyfully eating stolen candy, with an upset sister looking on

and then.... the GREMLINS that come to visit.

These children who the night before had disguised themselves as angels or princesses all of a sudden turn to bickering gremlins, that cannot be consoled. And the catalyst is found in their tummies -- the load of candy they had consumed.

I've tried all sorts of tricks throughout the years to rid my otherwise fairly peaceful home of those post-Halloween-gremlins, from sending the candy to Tonga to hiding it on a top shelf (only to be eaten by us parents -- shame) to slowly throwing it away. But I have to admit, it did come with some guilt. After all, the girls were so excited about their collected bounty.

And then one Halloween I discovered a way to get rid of them in a way that made us all happy: The Candy Witch.

The Candy Witch moves with just as much speed as Santa Claus, and as she has almost the opposite characteristics as Santa, I think it's safe to assume she lives at the south pole. Flying around stealthily on her broomstick the night of November 1st, she sneaks into each house. If there is a pile of candy on the table with a note to the Candy Witch, she takes the treasure trove of candy and leaves a Halloween-y gift or two in its place.

IF YOU LEAVE AND A NOTE

You get a GIFT!!!!

Ironically, she has left in her path Halloween gifts that are very similar to those highly discounted "after Halloween" products at the store ....

My daughters now look forward to getting as much candy as they can get their paws on, not so they can eat them, (though I let them pick out a certain number for themselves) but so they can leave some for the Candy Witch. Both my oldest daughters are astounded that the Candy Witch seems to only go to our house and not their friends.

If only their friends knew to leave their candy on a table with a note to the Candy Witch....

(If you are fortunate enough to have the Candy Witch visit you at your house, you may suggest this book by David Carter. We love his creative buggy pop-up books!)



Halloween Bugs: A Trick or Treat Pop Up Book (Bugs in a Box Books)

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Posted in All Writers, For You, Halloween and Autumn, Health & Weight, Heidi, Holidays, The Moms | Tagged , , | 3 Comments